A system and method are provided. A virtual reality environment rendering module provides a virtual reality environment representative of one or more of a contact center, a predictive dialer, and a media collaboration session. The virtual reality environment includes avatars representative of resources and entities to be serviced by the resources. Characteristic(s) of the avatars are selected based on collected information of various types.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method, comprising: providing a contact center for directing customer contacts to contact center resources, managing customer contacts, and/or servicing customer contacts by contact center resources; providing, by a microprocessor executable virtual reality module, a virtual reality environment comprising a plurality of avatars, a first avatar being representative of an entity to be serviced by the contact center and a second avatar being representative of a human contact center resource for servicing the entity to be serviced, the entity to be serviced being one of a customer and contact; and performing at least one of the following steps: (i) selecting a characteristic of at least one of the first and second avatars based on collected contact center-related information, wherein the collected contact center-related information is one or more of: contact ID, contact type, contact media type, outbound contact initiation method, customer ID, customer presence, data source ID, party ID, party role start date/time, contact direction, contact direction description, contact purpose, contact reason, contact media interaction disposition, contact disposition, contact wait treatment/time, resource identifier, resource type, resource contact information, resource group identifier and/or information, resource percentage time in state by state identifier, current resource state, resource skill, resource skill level, resource performance statistic and/or metric, customer class, customer contact information, customer value indicator, customer historic business level and/or purchase, contact history, contact or contact queue details, longest wait time, percentage of calls answered, average answer time trunk or trunk group details, and contact center and/or predictive dialer performance statistic, policy, and/or objective; and (ii) before the entity is serviced by the human contact center resource, changing a characteristic of at least one of the first and second avatars based on a detected change in the collected contact center-related information, wherein, for each of (i) and (ii), a common virtual reality environment simultaneously comprises avatars for multiple entities to be serviced by the contact center.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (i) is performed, wherein the characteristic is one or more of appearance, voice characteristic, and behavior and wherein the collected contact center-related information is one or more of: contact ID, contact type, contact media type, outbound contact initiation method, customer ID, customer presence, data source ID, party ID, party role start date/time, contact direction, contact direction description, contact purpose, contact reason, contact media interaction disposition, contact disposition, contact wait treatment/time, resource identifier, resource type, resource contact information, resource group identifier and/or information, resource percentage time in state by state identifier, current resource state, resource performance statistic and/or metric, customer class, customer contact information, customer value indicator, customer historic business level and/or purchase, contact history, contact or contact queue details, longest wait time, percentage of calls answered, average answer time; trunk or trunk group details, and contact center and/or predictive dialer performance statistic, policy, and/or objective.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (ii) is performed, wherein the characteristic is one or more of appearance, voice characteristic, and behavior and wherein the collected contact center-related information is one or more of: a selected resource percentage time in state by state identifier, a current state of the resource, a skill of the resource, a skill level for the resource, a performance statistic of the resource, first-call resolution, service level/response time, average, predicted, forecasted, actual, or mean wait time, forecasting accuracy, service level compliance rate, agent occupancy, conversion rate, up-sell/cross-sell rate, cost per call, serviced entity complaint, first contact resolution rate, transfer rate, number of escalations, and call abandon rate, a time the resource spends reviewing daily alerts or special promotions, a time the resource spends logged into a relevant application, a time the resource spends organizing his or her workspace before servicing a contact, a contact wrap-up activity by the resource, average or total contact handle time by the resource, average speed of answer by the resource, adherence to schedule by the resource, contact service quality by the resource, competency of the resource, resource peak performance index, transfer rate, communication skill of the resource, adherence to a procedure by the resource, and serviced entity satisfaction.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first virtual reality environment is presented to the contact center resource and a second virtual reality environment is provided to the entity to be serviced, and wherein the first and second virtual reality environments are different.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collected information is information received from a federated database maintained by a third party, wherein the selected or changed characteristic is associated with the at least one of the resource and entity to be serviced and provides information to the other of the at least one of a resource and an entity to be serviced, and wherein the federated database is maintained by an online community.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of avatars are able to move within the virtual reality environment in response to a command received from a respective resource or entity to be serviced, and wherein the collected information is a trigger event arising from at least one of a movement of a selected avatar within a coordinate system of the virtual reality environment and a sensed focus of the avatar.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected or changed characteristic is intended to provide information to and/or influence a selection of the at least one of the first and second avatars by at least one of a resource and an entity to be serviced and wherein at least one of the following is true: (i) the selected or changed characteristic is of the first avatar and causes the first avatar to have a first appearance to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar to encourage the human contact center resource to select and service the entity to be serviced and/or convey first information to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and the selected or changed characteristic is of the first avatar and causes the first avatar to have a different second appearance to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar to discourage the human contact center resource from selecting and servicing the entity to be serviced and/or convey different second information to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and (ii) the selected or changed characteristic is of the second avatar and causes the second avatar to have a third appearance to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar to encourage the entity to be serviced to be serviced by the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and/or convey third information to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar and the selected or changed characteristic is of the second avatar and causes the second avatar to have a different fourth appearance to the entity to be serviced to discourage the entity to be serviced from being serviced by the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and/or convey fourth information to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the first and second avatars has multiple appearances and/or behaviors depending on a communication device and/or resource or entity to be serviced viewing the avatar.
9. A tangible and non-transient computer readable medium comprising microprocessor executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform the steps of claim 1 .
10. A system, comprising: a plurality of resource communication devices corresponding to a plurality of human resources to service work items; a work assignment engine operable to assign entities to be serviced to resources for servicing, each entity to be serviced being one of a customer and contact; and a microprocessor executable virtual reality module operable to provide a virtual reality environment comprising a plurality of avatars, a first avatar being representative of an entity to be serviced and a second avatar being representative of a human resource for servicing the entity to be serviced and to perform at least one of the following operations: (i) select a characteristic of at least one of the first and second avatars based on collected information, wherein the collected information is one or more of: contact ID, contact type, contact media type, outbound contact initiation method, customer ID, customer presence, data source ID, party ID, party role start date/time, contact direction, contact direction description, contact purpose, contact reason, contact media interaction disposition, contact disposition, contact wait treatment/time, resource identifier, resource type, resource contact information, resource group identifier and/or information, resource percentage time in state by state identifier, current resource state, resource skill, resource skill level, resource performance statistic and/or metric, customer class, customer contact information, customer value indicator, customer historic business level and/or purchase, contact history, contact or contact queue details, longest wait time, percentage of calls answered, average answer time; trunk or trunk group details, and contact center and/or predictive dialer performance statistic, policy, and/or obective; and (ii) before the entity is serviced by the human contact center resource, change a characteristic of at least one of the first and second avatars based on a detected change in the collected information, wherein, for each of (i) and (ii), a common virtual reality environment simultaneously comprises avatars for multiple entities to be serviced by the servicing resources.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein operation (i) is performed, wherein the characteristic is one or more of appearance, voice characteristic, and behavior and wherein the collected information is one or more of: contact ID, contact type, contact media type, outbound contact initiation method, customer ID, customer presence, data source ID, party ID, party role start date/time, contact direction, contact direction description, contact purpose, contact reason, contact media interaction disposition, contact disposition, contact wait treatment/time, resource identifier, resource type, resource contact information, resource group identifier and/or information, resource percentage time in state by state identifier, current resource state, resource performance statistic and/or metric, customer class, customer contact information, customer value indicator, customer historic business level and/or purchase, contact history, contact or contact queue details, longest wait time, percentage of calls answered, average answer time; trunk or trunk group details, and contact center and/or predictive dialer performance statistic, policy, and/or objective.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein operation (ii) is performed, wherein the characteristic is one or more of appearance, voice characteristic, and behavior and wherein the collected information is one or more of: a selected resource percentage time in state by state identifier, a current state of the resource, a skill of the resource, a skill level for the resource, a performance statistic of the resource, first-call resolution, service level/response time, average, predicted, forecasted, actual, or mean wait time, forecasting accuracy, service level compliance rate, agent occupancy, conversion rate, up-sell/cross-sell rate, cost per call, serviced entity complaint, first contact resolution rate, transfer rate, number of escalations, and call abandon rate, a time the resource spends reviewing daily alerts or special promotions, a time the resource spends logged into a relevant application, a time the resource spends organizing his or her workspace before servicing a contact, a contact wrap-up activity by the resource, average or total contact handle time by the resource, average speed of answer by the resource, adherence to schedule by the resource, contact service quality by the resource, competency of the resource, resource peak performance index, transfer rate, communication skill of the resource, adherence to a procedure by the resource, and serviced entity satisfaction.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein a first virtual reality environment is presented to the human resource and a second virtual reality environment is provided to the entity to be serviced, and wherein the first and second virtual reality environments are different.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the collected information is information received from a federated database maintained by a third party, wherein the selected or changed characteristic is associated with the at least one of the resource and entity to be serviced and provides information to the other of the at least one of a resource and an entity to be serviced, and wherein the federated database is maintained by an online community.
15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of avatars are able to move within the virtual reality environment in response to a command received from a respective resource or entity to be serviced, and wherein the collected information is a trigger event arising from at least one of a movement of a selected avatar within a coordinate system of the virtual reality environment and a sensed focus of the avatar.
16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the selected or changed characteristic is intended to provide information to and/or influence a selection of the at least one of the first and second avatars by at least one of a resource and an entity to be serviced and wherein at least one of the following is true: (i) the selected or changed characteristic is of the first avatar and causes the first avatar to have a first appearance to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar to encourage the human contact center resource to select and service the entity to be serviced and/or convey first information to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and the selected or changed characteristic is of the first avatar and causes the first avatar to have a different second appearance to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar to discourage the human contact center resource from selecting and servicing the entity to be serviced and/or convey different second information to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and (ii) the selected or changed characteristic is of the second avatar and causes the second avatar to have a third appearance to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar to encourage the entity to be serviced to be serviced by the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and/or convey third information to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar and the selected or changed characteristic is of the second avatar and causes the second avatar to have a different fourth appearance to the entity to be serviced to discourage the entity to be serviced from being serviced by the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and/or convey fourth information to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar.
17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the first and second avatars has multiple appearances and/or behaviors depending on a communication device and/or resource or entity to be serviced viewing the avatar.
18. A method, comprising: providing a contact center for directing customer contacts to contact center resources, managing customer contacts, and/or servicing customer contacts by contact center resources; and providing, by a virtual reality module, a virtual reality environment comprising a plurality of avatars, a first avatar being representative of at least one of an entity to be serviced and a second avatar being representative of a human contact center resource for servicing the entity to be serviced, wherein at least one of the first and second avatars has multiple appearances and/or behaviors depending on a communication device and/or contact center resource and/or entity to be serviced viewing the at least one of the first and second avatars and a common virtual reality environment simultaneously comprises avatars for multiple human entities to be serviced; and performing at least one of the following steps: (i) selecting a characteristic of at least one of the first and second avatars based on collected information, wherein the collected contact center-related information is one or more of: contact ID, contact type, contact media type, outbound contact initiation method, customer ID, customer presence, data source ID, party ID, party role start date/time, contact direction, contact direction description, contact purpose, contact reason, contact media interaction disposition, contact disposition, contact wait treatment/time, resource identifier, resource type, resource contact information, resource group identifier and/or information, resource percentage time in state by state identifier, current resource state, resource skill, resource skill level, resource performance statistic and/or metric, customer class, customer contact information, customer value indicator, customer historic business level and/or purchase, contact history, contact or contact queue details, longest wait time, percentage of calls answered, average answer time; trunk or trunk group details, and contact center and/or predictive dialer performance statistic, policy, and/or objective; and (ii) before the entity is serviced by the human contact center resource, changing a characteristic of at least one of the first and second avatars based on a detected change in the collected information, wherein, for each of (i) and (ii), a common virtual reality environment simultaneously comprises avatars for multiple entities to be serviced by the contact center.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein step (i) is performed, wherein the characteristic is one or more of appearance, voice characteristic, and behavior and wherein the collected information is one or more of: contact ID, contact type, contact media type, outbound contact initiation method, customer ID, customer presence, data source ID, party ID, business role, party role start date/time, contact direction, contact direction description, contact purpose, contact reason, contact media interaction disposition, contact disposition, contact wait treatment/time, resource identifier, resource type, resource contact information, resource group identifier and/or information, resource percentage time in state by state identifier, current resource state, resource skill, resource skill level, resource performance statistic and/or metric, customer class, customer contact information, customer value indicator, customer historic business level and/or purchase, contact history, contact or contact queue details, longest wait time, percentage of calls answered, average answer time; trunk or trunk group details, and contact center and/or predictive dialer performance statistic, policy, and/or objective.
20. The method of claim 18 , wherein step (ii) is performed, wherein the characteristic is one or more of appearance, voice characteristic, and behavior and wherein the collected information is one or more of: a selected resource percentage time in state by state identifier, a current state of the resource, a skill of the resource, a skill level for the resource, a performance statistic of the resource, first-call resolution, service level/response time, average, predicted, forecasted, actual, or mean wait time, forecasting accuracy, service level compliance rate, agent occupancy, conversion rate, up-sell/cross-sell rate, cost per call, serviced entity complaint, first contact resolution rate, transfer rate, number of escalations, and call abandon rate, a time the resource spends reviewing daily alerts or special promotions, a time the resource spends logged into a relevant application, a time the resource spends organizing his or her workspace before servicing a contact, a contact wrap-up activity by the resource, average or total contact handle time by the resource, average speed of answer by the resource, adherence to schedule by the resource, contact service quality by the resource, competency of the resource, resource peak performance index, transfer rate, communication skill of the resource, adherence to a procedure by the resource, and serviced entity satisfaction.
21. The method of claim 18 , wherein the plurality of avatars are able to move within the virtual reality environment in response to a command received from a respective resource or entity to be serviced, wherein the entity to be serviced is at least one of a work item and customer, wherein the resource is a human agent, and wherein the collected information is a trigger event arising from at least one of a movement of a selected avatar within a coordinate system of the virtual reality environment and a sensed focus of the avatar.
22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the selected or changed characteristic is intended to provide information to and/or influence a selection of the at least one of the first and second avatars by at least one of a resource and an entity to be serviced and wherein at least one of the following is true: (i) the selected or chan˜ed characteristic is of the first avatar and causes the first avatar to have a first appearance to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar to encourage the human contact center resource to select and service the entity to be serviced and/or convey first information to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and the selected or changed characteristic is of the first avatar and causes the first avatar to have a different second appearance to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar to discourage the human contact center resource from selecting and servicing the entity to be serviced and/or convey different second information to the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and (ii) the selected or changed characteristic is of the second avatar and causes the second avatar to have a third appearance to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar to encourage the entity to be serviced to be serviced by the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and/or convey third information to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar and the selected or changed characteristic is of the second avatar and causes the second avatar to have a different fourth appearance to the entity to be serviced to discourage the entity to be serviced from being serviced by the human contact center resource associated with the second avatar and/or convey fourth information to the entity to be serviced that is associated with the first avatar.
23. A tangible and non-transient computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform the steps of claim 18 .
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
May 15, 2012
August 11, 2015
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